Brewers rout Rays 10-1, one win from World Series title

The Milwaukee Brewers beat the Tampa Bay Rays 10-1 in Game 3 of the World Series on Monday night, scoring eight runs in the fifth inning to take a 3-0 series lead and move within one win of the first championship in franchise history.

The Brewers had 16 hits at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Fla., before a sellout crowd of 40,388, ESPN reported. Outfielder Jackson Chourio went 4-for-5 with a stolen base and an RBI double that capped the big inning. Catcher William Contreras added three hits.

Milwaukee sent eight batters to the plate with two outs in the fifth and got a hit from seven of them in a row, which MLB.com, citing OptaSTATS, said was a first for any postseason game. The eight two-out runs are the most in a single World Series inning, MLB.com reported, and the second most in any postseason inning.

The rally began with a walk to Christian Yelich. A force-out call at second base on a Contreras grounder was overturned on replay, which kept the inning alive. Brice Turang and Garrett Mitchell singled, Cooper Pratt and Sal Frelick doubled, and David Hamilton drove in a run with a single before Chourio’s double to right-centre field. Rays starter Freddy Peralta was charged with five runs and seven hits in 4 1/3 innings, and reliever Cam Booser was removed after facing four batters.

Brewers rookie left-hander Robert Gasser was nearly untouchable. He allowed one hit, a first-inning single by Yandy Diaz, and retired 14 straight batters before Victor Mesa Jr. walked to start the sixth. ESPN reported that Gasser faced the minimum through six innings, the first left-hander to do so in a World Series game since Sandy Koufax in 1965.

Chourio, 22, became the youngest player with a four-hit World Series game since Joe Garagiola in 1946, MLB.com reported. The Rays scored once in the game, and Milwaukee’s eight-run inning was two more than Tampa Bay had managed in the entire series to that point.

Teams that have taken a 3-0 lead in the World Series have usually finished the job quickly. Of the 25 that have done it, 21 swept and four won in five games, according to ESPN. The Brewers, who reached the Fall Classic by sweeping the Dodgers, made their only previous World Series appearance in 1982 and lost Game 7 to St. Louis.

Milwaukee won the opener 3-2 and took Game 2 by rallying past Tampa Bay 5-4, as Canada News Media reported after Game 1 and again after Game 2. The Rays reached the World Series by beating Cleveland in Game 6 of the American League Championship Series.

Game 4 is Tuesday at 8 p.m. ET (6 p.m. MT) at Tropicana Field and is broadcast on FOX, MLB.com said. A Brewers win would complete a sweep.

If you find reporting like this useful, consider supporting Canada News Media, an independent Canadian newsroom with no corporate parent.

Via ESPN and MLB.com.